IGNOU is just an SMS away

10 August, 2011

Keeping in mind the huge numbers the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) caters to, the university has launched its second level of SMS alerts service enabling students who are on its rolls as well as the prospective ones to send their queries to IGNOU by SMS.

Students can SMS their queries at 9223051616. The query should be prefixed with IGNOU followed by space. For example: IGNOU What is the last date for submission of examination form?

“This development is significant as students and other stake holders of IGNOU need not access their e-mail accounts or postal services to send queries to IGNOU. The major implication of this service is for students who are residing in remote areas where the infrastructure is poor. Another lot of students who are going to benefit are those resides abroad,” said Assistant Prof. and Convener for SMS alert services, P.V. Suresh from School of Computer and Information Sciences, IGNOU.

The University is offering programmes in more than 40 countries apart from India. Students in these countries can also SMS their queries to IGNOU. The service is going to benefit all the students of IGNOU who are more than 3.5 million as well as other stake holders including prospective students.

IGNOU launched SMS alerts services on November 18th, 2008. It enabled IGNOU to communicate with its learners. Then, the facility was available at IGNOU headquarters, New Delhi and selected Regional Centres. From July 2010 onwards, the facility was made available to all the Regional Centers, Schools, Divisions, Units and Cells.

Till date, more than 1 crore SMS were sent from different departments of IGNOU to its students and other stake holders. With the launch of current SMS service, any one will be able to communicate to IGNOU using SMS.